dance of the saguaro jam

Earlier this spring the Saguaro cacti that live in our yard began to bloom. Their blooms were high on the top of their trunk so were tricky for me to photograph until I found one that had fallen to the ground. Birds of all sizes love them, even the little Humming birds.



At the end of their bloom life the flowers dried on the end of the young saguaro fruit. Many of the dried blooms would fall to the ground where it was easy to mistake them for dog do-do.




As the fruit grew and became ripe it split open to expose the seeds inside. Again the birds flocked to the cactus and feasted on the sweet treat.



Jay has been in competition with the birds and the ants to see who could get the ripe fruit first. Sometimes he uses a ladder and climbs up and plucks the fruit off. Other times he uses a long pole with a homemade picker/catcher taped to the end.


After the fruit is harvested the seeds can be removed by cutting the fruit in half and scraping the inside.



Then it's into the pot to boil down, a little sugar, a little lemon juice and....



yum! Saguaro jam!

salvation army march

Imagine my surprise when I walked in the Salvation Army Store looking for children's books and there, front and center on the bric-a-brack display, was a cow milk pitcher just like the one we had when I was growing up. Similar to the one that was passed on to my niece Julie, this cow also was missing the "moo" box that made an entertaining noise when the cow was tipped. The $15.00 price tag seem like a good deal for such sweet childhood memories. But wait...to my delight I overheard the cashier telling shoppers that if they waited 20 minutes to make their purchases everything in the store would be on sale for 50% off. What a wonderful find.

lily's week*

On Sunday Lily got into the fireplace...
there were ashes everywhere.

On Monday Lily carried M&M's down the stairs ....
chocolate was everywhere.

On Tuesday Lily chased the ground squirrels into the cactus...
there were cactus needles stuck everywhere.

On Wednesday Lily took garlic off the counter...
the smell of garlic was everywhere.

On Thursday Lily licked a frog and foamed at the mouth....
we rinsed her mouth out with the hose and then there was water everywhere.

On Friday Lily pulled the stuffing out of her toys...
there were piles of white fluff everywhere.

Today is Shabbat... maybe Lily will rest.



*inspired by the book Cookie's Week by Cindy Ward

dancing with the puppy sitter

My friend Renalee called the other day and asked if I would mind watching a wolf-pup while she ran an errand in town. Of course she knew she wasn't asking much of a favor as playing with puppies is one of my favorite things to do.

An added bonus was that Keith got to hold his first wolf-pup.


This pup has such a good appetite that his belly was almost as wide as he was long. He was so sweet I didn't even mind having to clean up his messes.

First Praise

Last Shabbat We had a guest speaker visit our community. Dr. Frank Seekins taught on Hebrew word pictures. He did an excellent job of teaching how the original Hebrew letters represented both a sound and a picture and how understanding the picture gives new insights into the meaning of each word.

While we were worshiping before the teaching I couldn't help noticing my friend Yerusalem's daughter as she toddled about with a flag in her hand. When I realized Jay had our camera set up on the tripod ready to record the teaching, I couldn't resist trying to capture a photo of this moment of first praise. May she grow up to be a mighty woman of YHVH,


It is tradition for the children to stand under a prayer shawl at the end of the worship time and receive a blessing.

We pulled over on the way home to catch this beautiful ending to the Sabbath day on film.

Shalom!

dancing through the pages

GOOD BOOKS, GOOD TIMES!
by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Good books.
Good times.
Good stories.
Good rhymes.
Good beginnings.
Good ends.
Good people.
Good friends.
Good fiction.
Good facts.
Good adventures.
Good acts.
Good stories.
Good rhymes.
Good books.
Good times.

I love children's literature and have greatly missed reading all my favorite books now that I'm not in the classroom. Recently Kerry, Tim's wife, (Tim is Jay's oldest son) accepted a first grade teaching position south of Tucson. I've been having fun visiting all the local used book stores in the area and finding book bargains galore to get Kerry started out right. Finding titles like Cookies Week and The Lady with the Alligator Purse is kind of like meeting up with a good friend you haven't seen in a long time.

dancing on the enemy

I have given you authority to trample on snakes and
scorpions
and to overcome all the power of the enemy.
Nothing will harm you.

Luke 10:19

Yesterday I sprayed the house for bugs after Lily spotted a big spider walking up the wall. This morning as I was washing my face I stepped on something that felt like a pebble. When I bent to pick it up I saw it was a small scorpion. I thank God for all the ways he protects me....from snakes and scorpions and the evil schemes of the enemy.

why i love arizona #3

Winter Roses....I took this photo on New Year's day near Dateland Arizona.

dance of thankfulness

Thursday afternoon I was working on the computer when I heard Lily crunching on something. I looked down and found her with a glass jar of M&M's. The M&M's had been upstairs in Keith's room. She had carried them, jar and all, down the stairs and ate her way through half the jar. Knowing that chocolate can be poisonous for dogs, I quickly changed my Internet search from How to preserve saguaro fruit to What to do if your dog eats chocolate. The information I read suggested inducing vomiting and then taking charcoal. It also gave charts of what chocolate is most and least harmful. Milk chocolate M&M's fell in the middle with Baker's chocolate being the worst and white chocolate be the least poisonous. I used Hydrogen Peroxide mixed in Apple Juice to get her to vomit and then called Keith who was in town and had him bring home some charcoal. I prayed over her and watched closely for any symptoms that I had read about and after a hour or two started thanking God for again sparing my dogs life.

Silly Lily....M&M's are for kids not for dogs!

hat dance

Out of Africa

Last weekend we had some atypical down time and ended up doing a photo shoot. The original inspiration was Jay's beard-which has never been this long before- but it quickly turned into a hat photo shoot featuring just a few of the hats from his collection.

The Shakespearean look

Jay's Amish side

The middle east

A family portrait

silly lily

Lily at work....

Lily at rest...

dancing with the new moon

Our involvement with Messianic believers has us watching the sky much more closely recently. On the second night of the new moon last month Jay took these photographs.

dancing 'round the squash blooms

I was delighted recently went I went out to water my garden in the morning and found blooms on the squash plants. Yeah!

why i love arizona #2

I love going to the local fruit market....Arizona's close proximity to California and Mexico results in summer fruits and veggies being offered during the winter months and shopping at the market rather than the chain grocery store is a sweet deal. Today I loaded my basket knowing that we have company coming. Orange peppers=6 for a dollar, limes=15 for dollar, pineapple=89 cents, melons=3 for a dollar (not that I'll be eating them), cucumber=4 for fifty cents, and strawberries=today 99 cents a box but some days I get them 3 boxes for a buck. By check out time I had the basket full for under 24 dollars.

When I got home Keith helped me unpack the car. I asked him not to put anything away as I wanted to photograph my purchases. That was all the inspiration he needed to create the fruit-art below.